Tesla Semi truck total cost of ownership, blockchain in cars, electric delivery vehicles and implications of electric cars for Big Oil … What else happened in the automotive and mobility sectors? Please enjoy our auto industry and mobility briefing for 19th February to 25th February 2018.A PDF version can be found here.
Favourite stories of the past week…?

Ford’s North America head departed for unspecified improper behaviour and the company launched a wider reshuffle, including a number of moves amongst the finance leadership — possibly in a continued quest for a successor to the CFO. (Ford)

Geely (includes Volvo)

Geely’s CEO took a 9.7% Daimler stake — larger than the 6% or so previously rumoured. (Manager Magazin)

Implication: Having now purchased large stakes in both Volvo group (the non-carmaking one) and Daimler, Geely’s strategy isn’t fully clear. Yes, it could help smooth the way for component sharing, but at the cost of tying up a substantial amount of capital. Unless the plan was to ultimately get Volvo to buy Daimler trucks and Daimler to buy Geely’s automotive operations with the money..? Surely not.

Convened meetings with South Korean politicians and labour leaders in an attempt to finalise a plan to make operations in the country viable. Amongst the reported initiatives were a fresh injection of funds by GM, government support and wage freezes. In return, GM may allocate two new vehicles to factories in the country. (Reuters)

Unveiled the all-electric Master Z.E. 1T commercial vehicle, which Renault claims has a 120 km real world range. The new van will be an early adopter of Renault’s Easy Connect fleet management software. (Renault)

Announced financial results for 2017. Revenue of €231 billion was up 6.2% versus 2016; operating profit increased to €17 billion, leading the company to propose doubling the dividend. (VW)

Porsche said that it has already ceased production of diesel versions of the Macan and that sales of diesel Panamera would soon stop — customers are opting for hybrids in large numbers. Although it production of diesel engines for the current model Cayenne has stopped, it seems the successor vehicle will have diesel. (UN Climate Action Plan)

Concluded pay negotiations with German unions, agreeing to a 4.3% rise and a new bonus scheme that can be taken as cash or additional leave. The agreement lasts until April 2020. (VW)

Škoda unions are said to be demanding a 15% pay rise over 27 months, threatening “unlimited” strikes until agreement is reached. (Handelsblatt)

Will invest €80 million in a cabriolet version of the T-Roc SUV. Sales will start in 2020 and the company aims to sell 20,000 units each year. Good luck. (VW)

Porsche said that it is working on blockchain technology for application in vehicles. Alongside the expected talk of new business models, Porsche mentioned some additional benefits — a distributed ledger can speed up verification of commands, in Porsche’s case reducing the time it takes for a door opening command to activate. (Porsche)

Other

A team of students in the Netherlands, working with 3D printing company Oceanz have produced a car, dubbed Noah, they claim is fully recyclable and suitable for production via 3D printing. (3d print)

Mahindra & Mahindra said it would invest an additional 500 crores INR (about $77 million) in electric vehicles and components for EVs. (Mahindra)

Mitsuoka launched the new Himiko, a Morgan-esque two seat sports car. (Mitsuoka)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

UK government ministers said they are aiming for vehicle regulations to continue to be aligned between the UK and the EU post Brexit. (Economic Times of India)

Suppliers

Bosch said it was creating a new mobility division and announced the acquisition of US start-up SPLT. (Bosch)

Magna reported full year 2017 financial results. Revenue of $38.9 billion was up 7% on 2016, adjusted EBIT of $3.1 billion was also 7% higher than prior year. (Magna)

Valeo reported financial results for 2017, sales of €18.6 billion rose 12% from 2016 and net income of €1 billion was up 8%. (Valeo)

Delphi Technologies, the former powertrain division of Delphi before the separation into Delphi and Aptiv, released 2017 financial results; Revenues of $4.8 billion rose 9% on prior year, net income was $285 million. (Delphi)

Visteon reported full year 2017 financial results. Revenue of $3.1 billion was about inline with 2016, Net income was $176 million. (Visteon)

Continental will build a powertrain electronics factory in Hungary. The €100 million plant will employ 450 people and production is set to begin in Q3 2020. (Continental)

Mahle said that it had developed a cheaper ethanol-based fuel called MBE2. The main innovation is a way of speeding up the fermentation process. (Mahle)

Dealers

carlease.com, a provider of new cars delivered to customers’ doorsteps, said it raised $3.5 million. (Press Release)

Bosch said it was creating a new mobility division and acquired US start-up SPLT / Splitting Fares (Bosch)

Implication: If you want your mobility company to be acquired, maybe start a weekly newsletter? Both Stratim and SPLT did just this and now they belong to someone else.

Sony is partnering with a group of Japanese taxi firms to create a ride hailing service. The company believes that it can offer artificial intelligence competencies that will set its efforts apart. (Reuters)

Citymapper said that it had finished its pilot scheme running bus services in London and decided to start trials of a fleet of smaller minibuses. The company said it would like to operate larger vehicles but that regulations were currently too great an obstacle. (Citymapper)

Implication: Citymapper’s experience shows that for all the clever algorithms and awesome new never-seen-before ways of running a bus service, practical problems remain. Interestingly, one point the company didn’t mention was that bus services are often lossmaking anyway — it is common for larger public transport systems to have subsidies amount to between a third and a half of income. Ticket price rarely reflects operating cost.

BP’s latest energy outlook forecast a peak demand for oil in the 2030s as growth in electric car sales reduces fossil fuel consumption. Under one scenario, 30% of vehicle miles in 2040 would be electric — implying a significantly higher than 30% share of new car sales at that point in time. (Reuters)

Delivery firm UPS said it was working with electric vehicle start-up Workhorse on a bespoke electrified delivery vehicle. The collaboration initially hopes to create a test fleet of 50 vehicles. (The Verge)

UPS follows DHL (who bought Streetscooter) in deciding that mainstream OEMs aren’t up to the challenge of providing the vehicles that they need. US Postal Service could follow the same path. Given all the complaints from OEMs about customers not wanting electric vehicles, it’s a shame they aren’t taking greater advantage of the opportunities arising from those that do.

Researchers published a paper indicating that lithium ion batteries could be charged much faster if fibre optic sensors were fitted to monitor heat within the battery, without causing large reductions in battery life. (Engadget)

UK electricity network monopoly, National Grid, is proposing 100 high power charging stations along key motorway routes to provide stations within a 50 mile radius to 90% of motorists. (Engadget)

Apple are reportedly changing their strategy on cobalt purchasing in the face of higher demand for the material created by electric vehicles. (The Verge)

Airbus’s flying taxi, Vahana, took to the skies in test flights. The company revealed that a one minute flight used about 8% of the battery capacity. (Geekwire)

Implication: Either flying taxi companies are betting on massive improvements in weight and cost (probably) or are planning on woefully short ranges (probably not). The most likely way to keep these vehicles in the air continuously is (whisper it) battery swapping.

Hong Kong-based dockless bike sharing scheme GoBee said it was shutting its operations in France, blaming vandalism and a weak business model. (TechCrunch)